Fire at PIMS ward forces evacuation of patients
Blaze was quickly controlled with no injuries but inquiry committee formed
PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
A fire broke out in a surgical ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on Thursday prompting the hospital authority to evacuate patients. Quick action, though, prevented any injury or loss of lives.
The fire broke out in surgical ward 5 at around 3:45 pm in a room used by the doctors on the first floor of the hospital.
Officials said the hospital’s staff and the fire brigade responded swiftly and succeeded in restricting the fire to just the duty room.
They managed to control and completely extinguish it within half an hour.
There were around 45 patients in the ward when the fire broke out. But the hospital staff managed to evacuate all of them. Though the fire was limited to one room, burning mattresses filled the room with smoke. This caused panic in the ward and led to a mini-stampede.
Due to the excessive smoke, some people were seen lying in the corridors while others were outside the building under the open sky. Once the smoke cleared, they were taken inside and shifted to other wards. Officials believe that the fire started because of an unattended electrical heater which was left on in a locked room on the floor.
Pims Administrator Dr Altaf Hussain said that an inquiry committee consisting of six members, including senior professors from the hospital and fire section officers from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been constituted to ascertain the cause of the fire, estimate the damage caused to the physical infrastructure of the ward, affix responsibility, and suggest steps to prevent such incidents from taking place in the future.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2018.
A fire broke out in a surgical ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on Thursday prompting the hospital authority to evacuate patients. Quick action, though, prevented any injury or loss of lives.
The fire broke out in surgical ward 5 at around 3:45 pm in a room used by the doctors on the first floor of the hospital.
Officials said the hospital’s staff and the fire brigade responded swiftly and succeeded in restricting the fire to just the duty room.
They managed to control and completely extinguish it within half an hour.
There were around 45 patients in the ward when the fire broke out. But the hospital staff managed to evacuate all of them. Though the fire was limited to one room, burning mattresses filled the room with smoke. This caused panic in the ward and led to a mini-stampede.
Due to the excessive smoke, some people were seen lying in the corridors while others were outside the building under the open sky. Once the smoke cleared, they were taken inside and shifted to other wards. Officials believe that the fire started because of an unattended electrical heater which was left on in a locked room on the floor.
Pims Administrator Dr Altaf Hussain said that an inquiry committee consisting of six members, including senior professors from the hospital and fire section officers from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been constituted to ascertain the cause of the fire, estimate the damage caused to the physical infrastructure of the ward, affix responsibility, and suggest steps to prevent such incidents from taking place in the future.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2018.